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The

Social Rankings

A complete guide to the performance of the English Premier League clubs on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Weibo

2019 ABOUT THE REPORT

Social Network Rankings from Newton Insight is the most comprehensive study on the domestic and international influence of Premier League clubs in global social media. Going beyond simple lists tallying follower numbers, the authors comprehensively breakdown and cross reference engagement levels, speed of growth and sentiment. The report is a reference for clubs to assess their performance and competitiveness across different social networks. For sponsors and marketers, the results highlight how much value social networks are adding to the global fan base of the Premier League. Newton Insight’s report is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the business of football and the roles social media and branding play in shaping its future.

About Newton Insight

Newton Insight is a full-service social media research agency based in . The company was founded in 2016 by a management team with extensive experience of reporting the business and commercial value of media. Newton Insight delivers analytics on social media trends and deeper insights into audience attitudes, opinions and emotions. We operate across all business, public and sports sectors. For more information about this report or to discuss your research requirements please contact Philip Lynch.

Contact [email protected] +44 (0)7984 579924 www.newtoninsight.net CONTENTS 2019

Foreword Page 5 Key Trends 2019 Page 6 Page 7

MAIN TABLE Page 8 Stats Page 11 United Page 12 Page 13 Beyond The Big Six Page 14 Promoted Clubs Page 15 Total Fans Page 16 Total Posts Page 17 Total Engagement Page 18 Normalised Engagement Page 19 Fan Satisfaction Page 20

THE SOCIAL NETWORKS Page 21 Spotlight: Facebook Page 33

DATA TABLES Page 36 Facebook Page 40 Instagram Page 42 Twitter Page 44 YouTube Page 46 Weibo Page 48

Disclaimer Page 51 FOREWORD

The headlines for 2019 are predictable enough; Facebook is still the biggest social media channel for the Premier League and Manchester United is still the #1 club.

Most of us love the unpredictability of the Premier League, even though we know only a handful of clubs stand a realistic chance of winning it. The same is true of social media. Yes, we know Facebook is important and we expect United and the other members of the 'Big Six' to end at the top of the table, but beyond that, everything is up for grabs.

Manchester United are #1, but Manchester is growing faster on Facebook and Liverpool is outpacing United on Instagram. In China, Chelsea is adding more fans than any other club, United included.

Our latest analysis contains many examples of mid-size and smaller clubs excelling in their efforts to grow their global fan bases. Not every success is the social media equivalent of an Andros Townsend screamer, but there are plenty of surprises outside of the Big Six in Social Network Rankings 2019.

Burnley is doing well in China and closer to home Brighton & Hove Albion has doubled engagement with fans on Twitter. Wanderers fans are hugely motivated to engage with their club on all social networks.

There are challenges too, with some of the Premier League's biggest clubs struggling to find new ways to maintain fan engagement on Facebook or to stimulate new growth on Weibo.

The social networks themselves have experienced contrasting fortunes over the past twelve months. Instagram has displaced Twitter as the second-largest social network for the Premier League. Over on YouTube, fan engagement has doubled, thanks to United's decision to launch an official YouTube channel.

As ever, the aim of Social Network Rankings is to squeeze as much meaning as we can from the metrics available from the network APIs. We put in a lot of effort and we check the numbers carefully. We hope our findings stimulate the thinking of the clubs, sponsors and advertisers and everyone with an interest in the development of the Premier League. KEY TRENDS FOR 2019

• The Premier League clubs added 52M fans (+13%) in global social networks in 2018. This equates to 140K new fans per day

• Despite a challenging start on the pitch for the 2018-19 season, Manchester United remains the #1 Premier League club on social networks. The club has the largest fan base on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Weibo

• Manchester United’s launch of an official YouTube channel in February 2018 has achieved a subscriber base of 1.3M. This ranks United third behind Liverpool (1.8M) and Manchester City (1.6M) on YouTube

• On Facebook, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal did not grow their fan bases in 2018

• Manchester City is the fastest growing club on Facebook, with 7M new fans acquired in 2018. City accounts for over half of all Premier League fan growth on Facebook

• Fan engagement on Facebook slumped by 42% in 2018 as fans moved their activity to Instagram and the clubs struggled to adapt to changes in Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm

• Liverpool is adding more fans on Instagram than any other club; 6M new fans in 2018

• Chelsea is the fastest-growing club on China’s Weibo; 1.3M new fans in 2018

• Liverpool, Bournemouth and Spurs fans express most satisfaction with their clubs

• Wolves, Brighton and Liverpool have the most engaged fans A DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE PREMIER LEAGUE

140k 720 140,000 new fans join a club Premier League clubs account publish 720 new posts 34k 7.5m 34,000 new fans join Fans engage with on Facebook their clubs 7.5 million times 70k 940k 70,000 new fans Fans watch YouTube join on Instagram videos 940,000 times 20k 5m 20,000 new fans join 5 million fan on Twitter engagements happen on Instagram

Average daily values for January-December 2018 Main Table

Social Network Rankings

2019 MAIN TABLE 2019

Social Network Rank Jan-Dec 2018

Manchester United 60.2

Liverpool 55.0

Manchester City 44.5

Chelsea 42.9

Arsenal 41.2

Tottenham Hotspur 32.9

Wolverhampton Wanderers 29.9

Huddersfield 20.7

Burnley 20.1

Crystal Palace 19.4

Brighton & Hove 18.8

Everton 18.1

Southampton 17.8

West Ham 17.2

Cardiff 17.0

Watford 16.1

Newcastle 15.7

Leicester 15.3

Fulham 14.7

Bournemouth 12.2 MAIN TABLE 2019

Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Weibo Score & Rank

Fans Rank Team Growth Fans ('000) Growth Fans ('000) Growth Fans ('000) Growth Fans ('000) Growth Score (‘000) (Previous)

Manchester 73,276,533 -0.6% 18,605,492 12.1% 25,285,662 25.4% 1,306,951 163.6% 9,318,266 1.1% 60.2 United 1 (1)

Liverpool 32,365,967 6.4% 10,853,499 15.6% 11,428,921 116.9% 1,776,837 137.6% 2,501,761 6.1% 55.0 2 (5)

Manchester 36,662,383 26.3% 6,550,936 17.2% 9,798,420 64.2% 1,577,545 45.8% 8,312,536 0.8% 44.5 City 3 (2)

Chelsea 47,717,760 -0.3% 12,319,114 9.0% 14,342,802 33.8% 1,040,785 44.6% 4,265,081 46.6% 42.9 4 (3)

Arsenal 37,780,252 -0.3% 13,930,181 9.8% 13,014,879 24.0% 1,133,425 55.3% 4,784,022 2.3% 41.2 5 (4)

Tottenham 10,296,754 18.8% 3,159,120 21.1% 3,405,047 107.8% 412,424 79.5% 1,965,394 28.3% 32.9 Hotspur 6 (7)

Wolverhampton 493,147 55.2% 355,642 36.1% 215,190 329.2% 42,789 63.9% 149,657 - 29.9 Wanderers 7 (-)

Huddersfield 141,976 25.8% 170,813 30.3% 128,929 125.8% 16,156 39.5% 12,158 166.4% 20.7 8 (6)

Burnley 408,769 5.1% 386,224 25.3% 202,868 56.8% 13,755 50.4% 93,366 1790.0% 20.1 9 (12)

Crystal Palace 1,079,368 1.4% 783,922 17.7% 355,647 55.1% 35,615 33.4% 16,679 16.6% 19.4 10 (11)

Brighton & 243,812 16.5% 211,417 30.7% 177,498 134.9% 19,321 20.8% n/a n/a 18.8 Hove 11 (14)

Everton 3,106,687 1.7% 1,724,823 21.2% 821,417 55.1% 113,857 62.6% 17,046 2.6% 18.1 12 (9)

Southampton 3,079,530 76.8% 1,032,578 13.6% 437,550 36.8% 55,440 17.2% 132,032 102.9% 17.8 13 (18)

West Ham 2,301,406 0.2% 1,420,084 4.3% 679,175 39.9% 99,923 59.7% 85,484 1.2% 17.2 14 (10)

Cardiff 507,956 2.8% 280,753 19.5% 87,771 154.3% 18,116 44.1% 1,140 0.0% 17.0 15 (-)

Watford 419,375 6.5% 484,323 19.4% 313,225 73.9% 20,084 32.7% 4,278 3.9% 16.1 16 (13)

Newcastle 2,151,353 0.5% 1,323,550 10.6% 220,483 71.2% 40,004 17.6% 50,688 82.9% 15.7 17 (8)

Leicester 6,634,498 0.6% 1,268,943 15.2% 2,559,463 35.3% 78,197 22.7% 529,966 0.3% 15.3 18 (17)

Fulham 844,764 4.7% 472,324 19.1% 194,809 164.8% 17,428 36.1% n/a n/a 14.7 19 (-)

Bournemouth 375,650 4.7% 409,022 20.0% 273,684 55.7% 18,006 30.4% 11,879 -1.7% 12.2 20 (19) Derby Stats 2019 How local rivals match up in social networks

2 : 1 New Twitter Followers in 2018 Manchester United is adding twice as many new followers on Manchester Manchester Twitter than Manchester City United City 2M 1M

30 : 1 Time to add 10k new fans on Facebook It takes Everton a month to match Liverpool’s daily growth Liverpool Everton on Facebook 2 Days 2 Months

Total number of Instagram fans Dec 2018 2 : 1 Crystal Palace has twice as many followers on Instagram than Crystal Palace Brighton 177k Brighton & Hove Albion 356k

4 : 1 Time to add 10K new fans on Weibo In China Tottenham Hotspur is adding new followers four times Tottenham Arsenal faster than Arsenal – the exact 8 Days 33 Days reverse of last year’s result, when Arsenal held a 4:1 advantage SOCIAL NETWORK RANKINGS 2019

Manchester United

United has maintained its lead in our Main Table by amassing millions of new followers on Instagram and Twitter, and by launching an official YouTube channel, which plugged the only significant gap in its social media armoury. United’s global reach means the club achieves more fan engagement across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram than any other club.

But there are areas where United’s lead is not a strong as it once was. This year Liverpool has recruited six million new fans on Instagram, compared to United’s gain of five million. On Facebook, Manchester City’s pursuit of new audiences in Africa and Asia has taken a seven million bite out of United's lead in fan numbers. In China, five clubs added more new fans than United on Weibo, although United remains #1 overall, with nine million Weibo fans compared to City’s eight million.

Manchester United seems to have acknowledged that it has reached maturity on Facebook, and the club is directing its output towards Instagram and its new YouTube channel.

How United Prioritises Instagram and YouTube: Over the past twelve months Manchester United’s output has swung away from Facebook and Twitter. The club is still a massive presence on both networks, but on Facebook, Chelsea and Spurs are more prolific than United. On Twitter, nine clubs produce more content than United. United’s main focus is Instagram, where it publishes more posts than any other club, and YouTube, where it is also ranked #1 for new content.

“United is still a massive presence, but there are areas where its lead is not as strong as it once was.” SOCIAL NETWORK RANKINGS 2019

Liverpool

Balance and consistency count for a lot on the pitch. The same could be said for Liverpool’s performance in the digital sphere; the club is achieving consistent organic growth across all social networks. The only concern for Liverpool is Weibo growth seems to have gone off the boil, with 144,000 fans added this year, down from over 400,000 new fans in 2017. An odd result given that Liverpool generates more fan engagement on Weibo than any other Premier League club.

Liverpool: Fans Added By Network 2018 7

6

5

4

3 Millions 2

1

- Facebook Instagram Twitter Weibo YouTube

In 2018 Liverpool added the most new fans on Instagram and also held off the challenge from the Manchester clubs to become the biggest Premier League club on YouTube. Over on Facebook, United’s dominant position remains a distant target but Liverpool’s acquisition of 2 million new fans closed the gap on Arsenal and Chelsea and was bettered only by Manchester City.

At the time of writing, Liverpool are sitting on top of the league and unsurprisingly, the engagement stats show it is a good time to be a Liverpool fan. The club is ranked #1 for engagement on YouTube and Weibo and is #2 behind United on Twitter and Instagram.

“Liverpool is achieving consistent growth across all networks and is adding more new fans on Instagram than any other club” SOCIAL NETWORK RANKINGS 2019

Beyond The Big Six: Five Teams Doing Something Right The top of the Social Networks Rankings table is dominated by the B6 clubs, but there’s still plenty of reasons to celebrate the progress of mid-table teams. Newly-promoted Wolves, Brighton & Hove Albion and Burnley cannot match the reach of Manchester United and the other B6 clubs, so their focus is on making the relationship with fans as strong as possible. Audiences may be smaller, but fan motivation is high. Media and Sponsors take note.

Wolverhampton Wanderers: Instagram The feel-good factor at Molineux is clearly having an affect on social networks; Wolves fans are engaging with their club more frequently on Instagram than the fans of any other Premier League club*

Brighton & Hove Albion: Facebook Faced with major changes to Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm, only two Premier League clubs managed to grow fan engagement on Facebook in 2018 and Albion was one of them

Burnley: Weibo Starting virtually from scratch this year, Burnley has grown in China at a fast rate and now has 100,000 fans on Weibo

Huddersfield: Twitter Not too much good news this season, but no other club keeps its Twitter fans up to date as frequently as Huddersfield. The club’s social media team put out 11,000 posts in 2018

Everton: YouTube Whatever Everton is posting on YouTube, it’s clearly working; Everton fans are more likely to engage with club videos than the fans of other Premier League clubs*

*normalised fan engagement; total engagements per club, per 10k fans

“There are still plenty of reasons to celebrate the performance of mid- table and smaller teams” SOCIAL NETWORK RANKINGS 2019

The Promoted Clubs

Of the three clubs promoted to the Premier League for the 2018/19 Season, Wolverhampton Wanderers is generating most momentum in social networks, with strong growth across all channels and very high levels of fan engagement.

On Instagram, only Liverpool fans have a higher personal engagement rating and on YouTube, Wolves is one of only two clubs to surpass one million engagements per 10,000 fans. Given the club’s entertaining start to back in the Premier League, it isn’t a surprise to learn that Wolves fans reach for their mobile phones to engage on Twitter more frequently than the fans of any other club; Wolves’ 79k Twitter engagements per 10,000 fans is the highest in the Premier League.

Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

Eng per Eng per Eng per Eng per Team Fans Growth Fans Growth Fans Growth Fans Growth 10k Fans 10k Fans 10k Fans 10k Fans

Wolves 493,147 55.2% 38,177 355,642 36.1% 78,570 215,190 329.2% 433,091 42,789 63.9% 1,048,142

Cardiff 507,956 2.8% 7,585 280,753 19.5% 18,453 87,771 154.3% 111,197 18,116 44.1% 947,485

Fulham 844,764 4.7% 7,585 472,324 19.1% 29,530 194,809 164.8% 287,083 17,428 36.1% 158,528

Although Wolves is making the most of the club’s return to the Premier League, Fulham has a larger following on social networks and the club is especially prominent on Facebook, where growth is in line with the overall Premier League average. The West London club is growing fast on Instagram, were it has the second-highest % rate of growth in the Premier League behind Wolves.

“Wolves are generating most momentum with strong growth across all channels” TOTAL FANS JAN-DEC 2018

Manchester United

Chelsea

Arsenal

Manchester City

Liverpool

Tottenham Hotspur

Leicester

Everton

Southampton

West Ham

Newcastle

Crystal Palace

Fulham

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Watford

Burnley

Bournemouth

Cardiff

Brighton & Hove

Huddersfield

0 50 100 150 Millions

Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube Weibo TOTAL CLUB POSTS JAN-DEC 2018

Chelsea 23,370

Tottenham Hotspur 20,568

Manchester City 19,040

Liverpool 17,100

Manchester United 16,904

Arsenal 15,846

Huddersfield 15,401

Brighton & Hove 14,542

Crystal Palace 13,635

Leicester 12,133

Southampton 12,099

Newcastle 11,660

Burnley 10,200

Fulham 10,146

West Ham 9,951

Bournemouth 9,699

Wolverhampton Wanderers 8,770

Watford 7,969

Cardiff 7,181

Everton 7,095 TOTAL FAN ENGAGEMENT JAN-DEC 2018

Manchester United 868,581,629

Liverpool 555,486,415

Chelsea 411,605,352

Arsenal 396,864,348

Manchester City 233,360,122

Tottenham Hotspur 127,952,248

Leicester 34,339,239

West Ham 28,936,980

Everton 24,376,092

Wolverhampton Wanderers 13,328,206

Crystal Palace 8,457,903

Southampton 7,243,184

Brighton & Hove 6,741,101

Fulham 6,134,445

Newcastle 4,702,433

Watford 3,904,986

Huddersfield 3,076,624

Cardiff 2,989,450

Bournemouth 2,986,123

Burnley 2,833,052 FAN ENGAGEMENT (PER 10K FANS)

Wolverhampton Wanderers 106,080

Brighton & Hove 103,384

Liverpool 94,267

Manchester United 67,968

Tottenham Hotspur 66,508

Huddersfield 65,456

West Ham 63,098

Arsenal 56,179

Chelsea 51,654

Everton 42,145

Fulham 40,112

Crystal Palace 37,239

Manchester City 37,099

Cardiff 33,374

Watford 31,459

Leicester 31,017

Bournemouth 27,440

Burnley 25,639

Southampton 15,290

Newcastle 12,420 FAN SATISFACTION JAN-DEC 2018

Fan Satisfaction: ‘Love’ & ‘Angry’ Reactions On Facebook

Love and Angry reactions by Facebook fans gives an indication of how fans feel about their clubs. The ratio is probably the metric most closely linked to performance on the pitch, but in several cases – notably the London clubs – fan reaction includes discussion of off-field issues.

Love/Angry Ratio

33.5 31.8 25.5 19.6 18.6 18.1 15.3 13.1 12.7 12.5 12.2 11.2 10.8 10.1 9.3 6.6 6.4 4.6 3.9 3.6

Club ‘Love’ Reactions ‘Angry’ Reactions Love/Angry Ratio Liverpool 4,489,372 134,198 33.5 Bournemouth 17,132 538 31.8 Tottenham Hotspur 1,386,281 54,418 25.5 Wolverhampton Wanderers 137,203 6,995 19.6 Brighton & Hove 27,226 1,467 18.6 Cardiff 24,015 1,327 18.1 Fulham 49,551 3,243 15.3 Huddersfield 7,791 597 13.1 Chelsea 3,452,780 271,413 12.7 Manchester City 1,982,676 158,446 12.5 Burnley 15,923 1,307 12.2 Manchester United 5,950,676 532,854 11.2 Crystal Palace 53,832 4,981 10.8 Newcastle 106,985 10,626 10.1 Arsenal 3,100,070 332,818 9.3 Leicester 377,712 57,643 6.6 Everton 168,532 26,502 6.4 West Ham 313,080 68,064 4.6 Watford 14,549 3,710 3.9 Southampton 73,359 20,525 3.6 The Social Networks

Social Network Rankings

Fan growth and engagement on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Weibo

2019 SOCIAL NETWORK RANKINGS 2019

All Networks Grow In 2018

The Premier League clubs continue to grow their fan bases in global social networks. Combined fan growth across all networks was 13 per cent in 2018, with Instagram and YouTube growing faster than Facebook, Twitter and Weibo.

Social Share of Fans Added Growth Posts by Share of Club Fan Share of Fan Total Fans Network Fans Jan-May 2018 (%) Clubs Posts Engagements Engagements

Facebook 259,887,940 56.5% 12,362,012 5.0% 55,421 21.0% 330,538,058 12.0%

Instagram 83,943,440 18.3% 25,331,820 43.2% 20,229 7.7% 1,884,132,243 68.7%

Twitter 75,742,760 16.5% 8,671,020 12.9% 149,714 56.9% 183,565,319 6.7%

YouTube 7,836,658 1.7% 3,410,514 77.1% 5,512 2.1% 342,456,137 12.5%

Weibo 32,251,433 7.0% 2,552,394 8.6% 32,433 12.3% 3,208,175 0.1%

Facebook remains the biggest social network for the Premier League despite several clubs seeing their Facebook growth fall to minimal or even negative levels due to a combination of maturing fan bases and the increasing popularity of other networks.

On Instagram the clubs added 25 million new fans in 2018, representing year- on-year growth of over 40 per cent. In the past twelve months, seven clubs doubled the size of their fan bases on Instagram. If the current trend is maintained, Instagram will exceed 100 million fans by the end of this year.

On Twitter, there was no repeat of the explosion in fan numbers seen in 2017, with growth slipping to 13 per cent. Instagram’s superior rate of growth means it has overtaken Twitter to become the second largest social network for the Premier League.

There were encouraging signs of higher growth on YouTube, helped in large part by the successful launch of an official Manchester United channel and Liverpool’s aggressive building of its subscriber base. In China, fan growth on Weibo is also accelerating, with absolute growth of 2.5 million new fans in 2018 a significant improvement on the 2 million new fans acquired in 2017. SOCIAL NETWORK RANKINGS 2019

Instagram Leads Fan Growth And Engagement

Although Instagram is not the Premier League’s biggest social network, it is the engine for both new fan growth and fan engagement. The 25 million new fans added on Instagram in 2018 represents almost half of the Premier League’s entire growth in global social networks. Instagram’s share of fan engagement is now close to 70 per cent as the network contributed 1.8 billion engagements to the Premier League’s total of 2.7 billion in 2018.

Net Fan Growth 2017 - 2018 30

25 In 2017 Twitter was the fastest growing social network, but growth fell back in 2018 as the Premier League clubs 20 amassed 25 million new fans on Instagram.

15 Millions

10

5

0 Facebook Instagram Twitter Weibo YouTube

Fan Growth Jan-Dec 2018 Fan Growth Jan-Dec 2017

Total Fan Engagement 2017 - 2018 2,000

No other network comes close to 1,600 matching Instagram’s fan engagement. Facebook engagement slumped by 42% 1,200 in 2018 while engagement on Instagram hit 1.8 billion and engagement on YouTube doubled.

Millions 800

400

0 Facebook Instagram Twitter Weibo YouTube

Fan Engagement Jan-Dec 2018 Fan Engagement Jan-Dec 2017 SOCIAL NETWORK RANKINGS 2019

Facebook / Instagram: The Quality of Engagement

One of the assumptions in social media is that engagement on Instagram is generally lighter; users swipe through their feeds quickly, giving occasional ‘likes’ to posts of interests. Within the hierarchy of social media engagement, a ‘like’ is an acknowledgement that a post has been seen and has resonated with the recipient in some way.

Comments are regarded as a more valuable response. By eschewing the ‘like’ button in favour of a comment, fans are demonstrating a higher level of engagement with their club. This has always been part of the argument in support of Facebook and Twitter. However, in 2018, Instagram contributed more comments from Premier League fans that Facebook.

The pervasiveness of ‘likes’ on Instagram means that comments form a relatively small part of Instagram engagement, but the Premier League clubs still received 11 million comments from fans on Instagram last year, against 9 million from fans on Facebook. The B6 clubs are driving this trend. In the mid- table, Facebook continues to contribute more comments than Instagram.

Fan Comments On Instagram And Facebook 2018

Manchester United Arsenal Liverpool Chelsea Manchester City Tottenham Hotspur West Ham Leicester Everton Southampton Brighton & Hove Wolverhampton Wanderers Newcastle Fulham Crystal Palace Watford Burnley Bournemouth Cardiff Huddersfield 0 1 2 3 4 Millions Instagram Facebook SOCIAL NETWORK RANKINGS 2019

Facebook

In 2018 the number of fans following the official accounts of the Premier League clubs on Facebook grew by 5 per cent to 260 million. In absolute terms, the 12 million new fans acquired in 2018 was unchanged from the number of fans added in the previous year. The underlying picture is slightly better than the headline numbers suggest as the three teams promoted for the 2018-19 season brought with them fewer Facebook fans than were lost through relegation.

The faster growth of other networks means Facebook is losing its share of the Premier League’s total fan base. In 2017, Facebook accounted for 60 per cent of all fans on social networks. This year Facebook’s share has fallen to 56 per cent and if current trends continue, by 2020 Facebook will no longer be home to an absolute majority of Premier League fans active in global social networks.

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Weibo

YouTube

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 Millions Total Fans Jan 2018 Fans Added in 2018

Despite its relatively low growth, Facebook continues to provide the foundation for the Premier League’s global presence in social networks. Facebook is available in more countries than any other network with the possible exception of YouTube. It’s worth bearing in mind that the 12 million new Facebook fans added by the clubs in 2018 comfortably exceeds the number of new fans acquired on Twitter. Also, many of the fans joining Twitter or Instagram will be joining from Facebook.

“Facebook is still the foundation. New fans joining Twitter or Instagram are joining from Facebook” SOCIAL NETWORK RANKINGS 2019

This underlines why Facebook remains important; it has more unique users than any other network. For this reason, Facebook is a good barometer for the Premier League’s acquisition of genuinely ‘new’ fans and for country penetration around the globe.

When considering the long-term outlook for Facebook, there are still opportunities for the clubs to grow, but there are challenges for the Premier League. The distribution of growth between the clubs is very uneven and on the engagement side, there has been a sharp decline in organic interactions with fans since 2017.

Facebook Growth: Manchester City

The Premier League clubs added 12 million new Facebook fans in 2018 but one club accounted for over half of all fan growth; Manchester City. Between January and December, City increased its global Facebook fan base by 7.6 million to 36.7 million fans, an annual growth rate of 26%.

Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton also achieved growth of over one million new fans in 2018, but aside from these clubs and City, growth for the remaining clubs in absolute terms was low. Wolverhampton Wanderers, Huddersfield and Brighton & Hove Albion achieved double-digit growth, but these gains, and the modest growth of the remaining clubs, was offset by a net loss of fans by Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal.

So how are we to explain the disparity between what City is able to achieve on Facebook and the performance of other clubs?

Manchester City is growing because it is investing in Facebook in a way very few other clubs are able to match. City has a clear strategy to build a global brand and much of the club's growth on Facebook is coming from regions in Africa and Asia where other social networks have less penetration. The club is also becoming more efficient in fan acquisition as it is adding more new fans year- on-year (7.6 million in 2018, up from 6.6 million in 2017).

“City is investing in Facebook in a way few other clubs are able to match” SOCIAL NETWORK RANKINGS 2019

There is also an element of proportionality in City’s development. The club is playing catch-up. City’s growth is impressive but Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal still have more fans on Facebook. Liverpool is not far behind. City has the Premier League title in its trophy cabinet but the club has ‘only’ 36 million Facebook fans. Given that the B6 clubs average close to 40 million fans on Facebook and United has made it to 73 million fans, there is still room to grow before City starts testing Facebook’s historic thresholds.

Facebook Engagement

As the Premier League’s Facebook presence grows, the clubs need to keep new fans engaged. For the league as whole, engagement has fallen by 42 per cent since 2017. When engagement is normalised to account for variations in fan base size, the average volume of engagement per 10k fans is now 13,000, down from 19,000 per 10k last year.

B6 Facebook Fan Engagement 2018 (normalised per 10k fans)

Tottenham Hotspur 21,854

Liverpool 16,708

Manchester United 13,503

Arsenal 12,391

Chelsea 11,894

Manchester City 9,990

The challenge of maintaining engagement on Facebook goes far beyond the B6 clubs. In 2018 only Liverpool and Brighton & Hove Albion managed to increase absolute levels of fan engagement. For the rest of the Premier League, 2018 marked a sharp deterioration in Facebook engagement, with some clubs reporting declines of more than 50 per cent.

“City still has room to grow before it starts testing Facebook’s historic thresholds” SOCIAL NETWORK RANKINGS 2019

Facebook: Club Posts v Fan Engagement, 2017-2018

% Change Club Posts Fan Engagement 2018 v 2017 Club 2018 2017 2018 2017 Fan Eng. Posts

Club Total 55,421 53,001 330,538,058 571,220,311 4.6% -42.1%

The decline in Facebook engagement is due to a combination of factors; firstly, fans are more active on other networks, notably Instagram. But there are underlying challenges unique to Facebook which the clubs need to address.

Facebook’s adoption of a policy of ‘family and friends first’ has made life more difficult for the Premier League clubs, or any brand, to reach and engage with audiences organically. This is an inevitable consequence of the rationale for Facebook’s action; the network is encouraging its business customers to invest more in promoted campaigns by making it harder for them to reach people for free.

Changes to Facebook’s algorithm mean the clubs have to jump over more computer-coded hurdles just to deliver content to their fans. Even if the clubs succeed in accessing the newsfeed, they face a second challenge to attract the attention of fans. The Facebook newsfeed has become so congested with branded content that it is difficult for even a Premier League club to stand out.

Content congestion on Facebook is not only a problem for the Premier League. In mid-2018 Buzzsumo and Buffer released new research on the efficiency of 43 million branded pages on Facebook. The report concluded that the over-supply of content from all quarters was the single biggest cause of user fatigue and declining engagement rates.

The overall decline in Facebook’s organic engagement is estimated at 50 per cent since 2017, which puts the 42 per cent drop experienced by the Premier League in a slightly better perspective. It should also be noted that in 2018 eight clubs escaped with a much lower decline. SOCIAL NETWORK RANKINGS 2019

So Facebook is becoming a more challenging environment for the Premier League but Manchester City, Liverpool and Brighton demonstrate that growth is still possible. As for the engagement problem, a solution is unlikely to be found by simply producing more content. In 2018, club posts on Facebook increased by 5 per cent but that didn’t halt the decline in fan responses.

When Newton Insight analysed the Premier League’s output of video on Facebook in 2018, we identified a long tail of content which fans neither viewed nor engaged with in a meaningful way. On average, a B6 club generates 80 per cent of its Facebook video engagement from less than half (45 per cent) of its output. So the strongest-performing content has a disproportionate impact on engagement.

Liverpool’s stand-out improvement on Facebook in 2018 was achieved on less output, not more. As on the pitch, quality is key.

% of Facebook video posts required to achieve 80% of fan engagement (H1 2018)

50%

40%

30% 49% 45% 20% 44% 43% 43%

10% 17%

0% Manchester Chelsea Arsenal Manchester City Liverpool Tottenham United Hotspur

“A solution to Facebook’s engagement problem won’t be found by simply producing more content” SOCIAL NETWORK RANKINGS 2019

Weibo

In China, the Premier League clubs achieved a 7 per cent increase to 32 million fans on Weibo in 2018. Chelsea was the clear winner in China with growth of 1.3 million new fans, putting the club within touching distance of Arsenal’s third place, behind the two Manchester clubs.

The Premier League’s presence in China is dominated by the B6 clubs, but some of the smaller clubs are making progress. Wolverhampton Wanders, Burnley and Southampton all more than doubled the size of their Weibo fan bases in China in 2018.

In last year’s report, we noted that Chinese fans are less likely to engage with their clubs than fans on Western social networks, but this behaviour seems to be changing, with Weibo engagement up 60 per cent year-on-year.

In 2018 Liverpool achieved over 800k engagements with fans on Weibo, a significant improvement over the 600k engagements recorded by Manchester United in 2017. Fan activity is also benefitting clubs outside of the B6. Crystal Palace has a relatively small fan base of 17k on Weibo, but its Chinese fans have the highest engagement rate per person in the Premier League.

B6 Clubs: Weibo Fan Growth 2016-2018

10 2018 2017 2016 9 8 7 6

5 Millions 4 3 2 1 0 Manchester Manchester City Arsenal Chelsea Liverpool Tottenham United Hotspur

“Chinese fans are more willing to engage with their clubs. Engagement on Weibo is up 60 per cent” SOCIAL NETWORK RANKINGS 2019

Weibo Share of Club Global Fan Base

Manchester City 13.2%

Wolverhampton Wanderers 11.9%

Tottenham Hotspur 10.2%

Burnley 8.4%

Manchester United 7.3%

Arsenal 6.8%

Chelsea 5.4%

Leicester 4.8%

Liverpool 4.2%

Southampton 2.8%

Huddersfield 2.6%

West Ham 1.9%

Newcastle 1.3%

Bournemouth 1.1%

Crystal Palace 0.7%

Watford 0.3%

Everton 0.3%

Cardiff 0.1%

Fulham 0.0%

Brighton & Hove 0.0% SOCIAL NETWORK RANKINGS 2019

YouTube

Manchester United’s YouTube debut in February was supported by new content and a full back catalogue designed to maximise impact on the club’s global fan base. In the first month, United achieved over 500,000 subscriptions and appeared to be on course to challenge the position of Liverpool and Manchester City as the biggest clubs on YouTube. Since then, United’s growth on YouTube has settled at around 100,000 new subscribers per month and the club ended 2018 with 1.3 million subscribers, still short of City’s 1.6 million and over half a million shy of Liverpool.

Whilst United’s launch grabbed the headlines, Liverpool’s achievements on YouTube need to be acknowledged; Liverpool has grown by over 1 million new subscribers this year, overtaking Manchester City as the Premier League’s #1 YouTube channel.

Liverpool generated almost 100 million fan engagements on YouTube in 2018, representing a significant margin over Manchester United and Manchester City. Liverpool is focused on ‘quality over quantity’ as the club’s YouTube output is one of the lowest in the Premier League. Between January and December Liverpool posted 213 new videos on YouTube. In 2018 eleven clubs posted more videos, without matching Liverpool’s engagement return.

The appetite for long-form video is also shared by the blue half of Merseyside. Everton may have a small fan base on YouTube, but the club’s fans have the highest rate of personal engagement with YouTube videos in the Premier League. Newton Insight calculates normalised engagement by measuring the number of engagements per ten thousand fans. In 2018, Everton’s 114,000 subscribers engaged with their club on YouTube at a rate of over 1 million engagements per 10k. Only the fans of Wolverhampton Wanderers, enjoying an encouraging start to life back in the top flight, came close to matching Everton.

“Liverpool generates most fan engagement overall, but the appetite for video is shared by Everton fans who watch more frequently” Spotlight: Facebook

Monthly Active Users

How many of the Premier League’s millions of Facebook fans are actively engaging with the clubs? SPOTLIGHT: ACTIVE FANS

The Premier League’s global reach on social networks extends to several hundred million fans, but the exact number of individuals following the clubs is difficult to calculate because of reciprocity between networks (fans using more than one platform to follow their club).

As Facebook is the Premier League’s biggest social network and home to more unique users than Instagram and Twitter, fan participation can be assessed by analysing Facebook’s own data for Monthly Active Users* (MAU).

In the free edition of Social Network Rankings, MAU data has been aggregated between the B6 clubs, mid-sized clubs with more than one million fans and smaller clubs with less than one million fans.

The research hypothesis is that smaller clubs are more community-focused and have a larger proportion of highly-motivated fans. This makes smaller clubs very efficient in terms of fan activity and engagement, even if their fan bases are not the biggest in the league.

As fan bases increase in size, we expect to see highly-motivated fans diluted by occasional fans, people who dip in and out of the Premier League and balance their interest in football with other lifestyle pursuits. The big clubs offer more reach, but their efficiency is lower. At least, that’s the theory.

The aggregate values for MAUs give a range for assessing the number of active fans for each category of club. It is a broad measure and there are at least two variables we need to keep in mind; the composition of monthly active users changes over time and there is significant variation between the individual MAU numbers for clubs within the same peer group.

The Facebook MAU data supports the view that bigger clubs have more ‘occasional’ fans. For the B6 clubs, the mean average value for MAUs is 56 per cent. For mid-sized and smaller clubs, average MAUs are above 70 per cent.

Finally, to dispel an old myth, Manchester United’s MAU rating is higher than the average for the B6 clubs.

*Facebook now prefers ‘Monthly Active People’ Source: Facebook Audience Insights FACEBOOK MONTHLY ACTIVE USERS Fig 1: Aggregate MAUs

Big Six (more than 10M fans)

MAU Range: <50% - 68%

Average no. of fans: 40M

Mid-size Six (more than 1M fans)

MAU Range: 68% - 74%

Average no. of fans: 3M

Smaller Club Eight (less than 1M fans)

MAU Range: 70% - 80%

Average no. of fans: 430K

Source: Facebook Audience Insights 69% 2.7B

Instagram Total fan has highest engagement share of fan with clubs engagement

YouTube is fastest 260M growing social network Facebook has largest fanbase +77%

NETWORK DATA TABLES

2019 HOW THE RANKINGS ARE CALCULATED

A club is analysed for eight performance indicators in each of the five social networks

For each indicator, the best performing club receives a maximum rating of 100. The performance of the remaining nineteen clubs is indexed against the club with the top rating.

For each club, ratings for the eight indicators are combined to create an average score per social network.

The result determines a club’s rank in the league tables for the social networks.

Rank in the Main Table is calculated by combining each club’s scores for the five social networks to produce a final average score out of 100.

The highest average score is given a Rank of 1, the lowest a Rank of 20. THE EIGHT PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Size of fanbase (fans, subscribers, followers) recorded end-Dec 1 2018

2 Number of new fans added between Jan-Dec 2018

3 Growth rate (%) of fanbase between Jan-Dec 2018

4 Total number of club posts between Jan-Dec 2018

Total fan engagement with the official accounts of the Premier 5 League clubs (likes, comments, shares, reactions, video views)

6 Total fan engagement, normalised per 10k fans

Acceleration: the average number of days a club requires to 7 add 10k new fans in one social network TABLE HEADINGS EXPLAINED

Number of new fans as % of fanbase in Jan 2018

Total number Total fan Overall club of individual fans interactions performance score attached with club benchmarked to club official posts (likes, against all other account in Dec 2018 comments, shares) clubs (max 100)

Total Fans Added Growth Club Fan Engagement per Days to Add 10k Team Fans 2018 (%) Posts Engagement 10k Fans Fans Index Rank

Manchester 73,276,533 -409,055 -0.6% 3,895 99,223,599 13,503 -8.9 42.1 2 United

Number of new Total fan Club rank for fans added interactions social network between normalised per performance Jan-Dec 2018 10k fans

Total number Acceleration: of club posts, Days to add 10k updates, videos new fans to a social network FACEBOOK SCORE & RANK 2019

Manchester City 44.2

Manchester United 42.1

Chelsea 37.8

Wolverhampton Wanderers 32.7

Liverpool 31.7

Tottenham Hotspur 28.6

Southampton 26.5

Arsenal 24.6

Brighton & Hove 15.3

Huddersfield 14.6

Everton 12.1

West Ham 12.1

Leicester 10.2

Watford 10.1

Fulham 9.1

Bournemouth 8.7

Newcastle 8.2

Burnley 7.9

Cardiff 7.9

Crystal Palace 7.7 FACEBOOK DATA TABLE 2019

Total Fans Added Growth Club Fan Engagement Days to Add Club Score Rank Previous Change Fans 2018 (%) Posts Engagement per 10k Fans 10k Fans

Manchester 36,662,383 7,629,922 26.3% 2,921 32,814,962 9,990 0.5 44.2 1 (2) City Manchester 73,276,533 -409,055 -0.6% 3,895 99,223,599 13,503 -8.9 42.1 2 (1) United

Chelsea 47,717,760 -122,027 -0.3% 9,411 56,830,181 11,894 -29.9 37.8 3 (4)

Wolverhampton 493,147 175,302 55.2% 1,890 1,548,079 38,177 20.8 32.7 4 (-) Wanderers

Liverpool 32,365,967 1,959,716 6.4% 2,842 52,439,242 16,708 1.9 31.7 5 (7)

Tottenham 10,296,754 1,627,384 18.8% 7,128 20,724,230 21,854 2.2 28.6 6 (8) Hotspur

Southampton 3,079,530 1,337,325 76.8% 1,671 1,462,026 6,064 2.7 26.5 7 (11)

Arsenal 37,780,252 -131,724 -0.3% 2,542 46,896,456 12,391 -27.7 24.6 8 (6)

Brighton & 243,812 34,610 16.5% 2,918 510,169 22,523 105.5 15.3 9 (9) - Hove

Huddersfield 141,976 29,142 25.8% 2,488 171,988 13,499 125.2 14.6 10 (3)

Everton 3,106,687 51,021 1.7% 931 3,045,297 9,884 71.5 12.1 11 (10)

West Ham 2,301,406 4,499 0.2% 1,985 4,049,526 17,613 811.3 12.1 12 (5)

Leicester 6,634,498 36,800 0.6% 2,118 6,258,111 9,459 99.2 10.2 13 (12)

Watford 419,375 25,542 6.5% 762 269,622 6,631 142.9 10.1 14 (13)

Fulham 844,764 37,757 4.7% 1,503 759,615 9,198 96.7 9.1 15 (-)

Bournemouth 375,650 16,786 4.7% 2,318 353,710 9,631 217.4 8.7 16 (16) -

Newcastle 2,151,353 10,325 0.5% 2,877 1,625,705 7,575 353.5 8.2 17 (15)

Burnley 408,769 19,965 5.1% 1,776 295,752 7,416 182.8 7.9 18 (19)

Cardiff 507,956 13,718 2.8% 1,342 380,071 7,585 266.1 7.9 19 (-)

Crystal Palace 1,079,368 15,004 1.4% 2,103 879,717 8,207 243.3 7.7 20 (18) INSTAGRAM SCORE & RANK 2019

Manchester United 68.5

Liverpool 59.7

Chelsea 45.2

Arsenal 42.1

Manchester City 41.0

Wolverhampton Wanderers 36.6

Tottenham Hotspur 31.6

Brighton & Hove 24.8

Fulham 24.0

Newcastle 21.5

Cardiff 20.1

Crystal Palace 19.1

Leicester 18.7

West Ham 18.3

Huddersfield 16.0

Watford 15.1

Everton 15.0

Southampton 11.2

Burnley 10.7

Bournemouth 10.4 INSTAGRAM DATA TABLE 2019

Total Fans Added Growth Club Fan Engagement Days to Add Club Score Rank Previous Change Fans 2018 (%) Posts Engagement per 10k Fans 10k Fans

Manchester 25,285,662 5,122,835 25.4% 1,936 646,551,293 284,520 0.7 68.5 1 (1) - United

Liverpool 11,428,921 6,159,727 116.9% 1,607 366,140,271 438,540 0.6 59.7 2 (6)

Chelsea 14,342,802 3,624,277 33.8% 1,457 303,246,614 242,003 1.0 45.2 3 (2)

Arsenal 13,014,879 2,521,498 24.0% 1,791 273,063,424 232,313 1.4 42.1 4 (3)

Manchester 9,798,420 3,830,373 64.2% 1,738 140,327,314 178,007 1.0 41.0 5 (5) - City Wolverhampton 15,190 165,051 329.2% 826 5,745,582 433,091 22.1 36.6 6 (-) Wanderers Tottenham 3,405,047 1,766,291 107.8% 1,394 78,300,930 310,484 2.1 31.6 7 (8) Hotspur Brighton & 177,498 101,934 134.9% 1,125 4,777,163 377,549 35.8 24.8 8 (9) Hove

Fulham 194,809 121,252 164.8% 924 3,852,169 287,083 30.1 24.0 9 (-)

Newcastle 220,483 91,695 71.2% 93 1,172,254 67,126 39.8 21.5 10 (7)

Cardiff 87,771 53,258 154.3% 263 679,878 111,197 68.5 20.1 11 (-)

Crystal Palace 355,647 126,327 55.1% 1,556 4,418,327 151,062 28.9 19.1 12 (14)

Leicester 2,559,463 667,613 35.3% 1,282 22,718,060 102,074 5.5 18.7 13 (10)

West Ham 679,175 193,827 39.9% 1,052 15,571,853 267,437 18.8 18.3 14 (12)

Huddersfield 128,929 71,820 125.8% 492 999,799 107,483 50.8 16.0 15 (4)

Watford 313,225 133,108 73.9% 951 2,540,041 102,973 27.4 15.1 16 (13)

Everton 821,417 291,978 55.1% 375 8,192,405 121,292 12.5 15.0 17 (11)

Southampton 437,550 117,601 36.8% 581 3,455,283 91,229 31.0 11.2 18 (17)

Burnley 202,868 73,503 56.8% 279 1,006,216 60,573 49.7 10.7 19 (20)

Bournemouth 273,684 97,852 55.7% 507 1,373,367 61,104 37.3 10.4 20 (16) TWITTER SCORE & RANK 2019

Manchester United 70.6

Liverpool 62.9

Arsenal 55.2

Chelsea 49.6

Wolverhampton Wanderers 43.7

Manchester City 43.2

Tottenham Hotspur 40.2

Brighton & Hove 35.9

Huddersfield 35.8

Leicester 28.3

Everton 28.0

Burnley 27.3

Fulham 26.4

Crystal Palace 25.8

Bournemouth 23.5

Watford 21.9

Cardiff 21.7

Southampton 21.4

Newcastle 20.4

West Ham 18.3 TWITTER DATA TABLE 2019

Total Fans Added Growth Club Fan Engagement Days to Add Club Score Rank Previous Change Fans 2018 (%) Posts Engagement per 10k Fans 10k Fans

Manchester 18,605,492 2,002,931 12.1% 7,550 41,231,699 23,422 1.8 70.6 1 (1) - United

Liverpool 10,853,499 1,468,471 15.6% 8,684 38,486,676 38,033 2.5 62.9 2 (4)

Arsenal 13,930,181 1,243,526 9.8% 7,070 32,492,387 24,415 2.9 55.2 3 (3) -

Chelsea 12,319,114 1,016,609 9.0% 8,697 24,797,269 20,995 3.6 49.6 4 (2)

Wolverhampton 355,642 94,421 36.1% 5,505 2,423,333 78,570 38.7 43.7 5 (-) Wanderers Manchester 6,550,936 961,481 17.2% 9,372 11,823,663 19,478 3.8 43.2 6 (7) City Tottenham 3,159,120 550,933 21.1% 7,809 12,201,631 42,313 6.6 40.2 7 (6) Hotspur Brighton & 211,417 49,623 30.7% 10,411 843,065 45,179 73.6 35.9 8 (8) - Hove

Huddersfield 170,813 39,705 30.3% 11,031 625,447 41,431 91.9 35.8 9 (5)

Leicester 1,268,943 167,489 15.2% 8,122 3,989,002 33,657 21.8 28.3 10 (20)

Everton 1,724,823 302,274 21.2% 5,472 3,356,157 21,327 12.1 28.0 11 (9)

Burnley 386,224 77,864 25.3% 6,985 792,583 22,822 46.9 27.3 12 (10)

Fulham 472,324 75,683 19.1% 7,597 1,283,022 29,530 48.2 26.4 13 (-)

Crystal Palace 783,922 117,815 17.7% 8,500 1,359,954 18,758 31.0 25.8 14 (11)

Bournemouth 409,022 68,189 20.0% 6,665 651,467 17,376 53.5 23.5 15 (13)

Watford 484,323 78,681 19.4% 6,070 571,357 12,840 46.4 21.9 16 (14)

Cardiff 280,753 45,899 19.5% 5,024 475,736 18,453 79.5 21.7 17 (-)

Southampton 1,032,578 123,881 13.6% 7,018 1,211,545 12,482 29.5 21.4 18 (17)

Newcastle 1,323,550 126,756 10.6% 6,912 1,648,966 13,085 28.8 20.4 19 (16)

West Ham 1,420,084 58,789 4.3% 5,220 3,300,360 23,732 62.1 18.3 20 (12) YOUTUBE SCORE & RANK 2019

Liverpool 82.8

Manchester United 80.1

Manchester City 54.0

Arsenal 46.5

Chelsea 37.3

Everton 35.4

Tottenham Hotspur 34.7

Wolverhampton Wanderers 32.2

West Ham 30.7

Huddersfield 28.3

Cardiff 28.2

Burnley 24.7

Crystal Palace 22.6

Bournemouth 18.4

Newcastle 18.1

Brighton & Hove 17.9

Watford 16.9

Southampton 14.8

Leicester 14.8

Fulham 13.9 YOUTUBE DATA TABLE 2019

Total Fans Added Growth Club Fan Engagement Days to Add Club Score Rank Previous Change Fans 2018 (%) Videos Engagement per 10k Fans 10k Fans

Liverpool 1,776,837 1,029,136 137.6% 213 97,560,143 549,066 3.5 82.8 1 (2)

Manchester 1,306,951 1,306,951 n/a 591 81,017,661 898,805 2.8 80.1 2 (20) United Manchester 1,577,545 495,770 45.8% 527 48,003,999 361,025 7.4 54.0 3 (1) City

Arsenal 1,133,425 403,412 55.3% 307 43,794,401 470,039 9.0 46.5 4 (4) -

Chelsea 1,040,785 321,207 44.6% 185 26,409,610 300,047 11.4 37.3 5 (5) -

Everton 113,857 43,830 62.6% 317 9,782,233 1,063,957 83.3 35.4 6 (6) -

Tottenham 412,424 182,693 79.5% 280 16,462,150 512,716 20.0 34.7 7 (9) Hotspur Wolverhampton 42,789 16,688 63.9% 488 3,610,324 1,048,142 218.7 32.2 8 (-) Wanderers

West Ham 99,923 37,338 59.7% 239 6,001,551 738,616 97.8 30.7 9 (10)

Huddersfield 16,156 4,571 39.5% 554 1,276,163 920,056 798.5 28.3 10 (3)

Cardiff 18,116 5,546 44.1% 464 1,453,727 947,485 658.1 28.2 11 (-)

Burnley 13,755 4,609 50.4% 249 698,868 610,338 791.9 24.7 12 (7)

Crystal Palace 35,615 8,922 33.4% 241 1,764,058 566,238 409.1 22.6 13 (12)

Bournemouth 18,006 4,202 30.4% 209 607,579 382,005 868.6 18.4 14 (18)

Newcastle 40,004 5,979 17.6% 21 238,243 64,365 610.5 18.1 15 (8)

Brighton & 19,321 3,321 20.8% 88 610,704 345,802 1099.1 17.9 16 (19) Hove

Watford 20,084 4,952 32.7% 185 523,958 297,568 737.1 16.9 17 (13)

Southampton 55,440 8,133 17.2% 113 1,056,370 205,625 448.8 14.8 18 (14)

Leicester 78,197 14,467 22.7% 119 1,344,756 189,500 252.3 14.8 19 (16)

Fulham 17,428 4,623 36.1% 122 239,639 158,528 789.5 13.9 20 (-) WEIBO SCORE & RANK MAY 2019

Chelsea 44.6

Manchester City 40.1

Manchester United 39.8

Liverpool 37.8

Arsenal 37.6

Burnley 29.8

Tottenham Hotspur 29.3

Crystal Palace 21.9

Watford 16.7

Southampton 15.1

Newcastle 10.2

Huddersfield 8.9

Cardiff 7.0

West Ham 6.8

Leicester 4.4

Wolverhampton Wanderers 4.1

Everton 0.1

Bournemouth 0.0

Fulham 0.0

Brighton & Hove 0.0 WEIBO DATA TABLE MAY 2019

Total Fans Added Growth Club Fan Engagement Days to Add Club Score Rank Previous Change Fans 2018 (%) Posts Engagement per 10k Fans 10k Fans

Chelsea 4,265,081 1,355,171 46.6% 3,620 321,678 897 2.7 44.64 1 (5)

Manchester 8,312,536 69,674 0.8% 4,482 390,184 471 52.4 40.1 2 (3) City Manchester 9,318,266 98,280 1.1% 2,932 557,377 601 37.1 39.8 3 (1) United

Liverpool 2,501,761 144,116 6.1% 3,754 860,083 3,540 25.3 37.8 4 (4) -

Arsenal 4,784,022 109,709 2.3% 4,136 617,680 1,306 33.3 37.6 5 (2)

Burnley 93,366 88,426 1790.0% 911 39,633 8,063 41.3 29.8 6 (13)

Tottenham 1,965,394 433,132 28.3% 3,957 263,307 1,506 8.4 29.3 7 (7) - Hotspur

Crystal Palace 16,679 2,378 16.6% 1,235 35,847 23,142 1534.9 21.9 8 (8) -

Southampton 132,032 66,963 102.9% 2,716 57,960 5,881 54.5 15.1 9 (16)

Newcastle 50,688 22,980 82.9% 1,757 17,265 4,405 158.8 10.2 10 (6)

Huddersfield 12,158 7,594 166.4% 836 3,227 3,860 480.6 8.9 11 (19)

Cardiff 1,140 1,140 0.0% 88 38 667 3201.8 7.0 12 (-)

West Ham 85,484 989 1.2% 1,455 13,690 1,611 0.0 6.8 13 (15)

Leicester 529,966 1,790 0.3% 492 29,310 554 2039.1 4.4 14 (17)

Wolverhampton 149,657 149,657 0.0% 61 888 119 0.0 4.1 15 (-) Wanderers

Watford 4,278 160 3.9% 1 8 19 0.0 1.7 16 (9)

Everton 17,046 439 2.6% 0 0 0 8314.4 0.1 17 (12)

Bournemouth 11,879 -204 -1.7% 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 18 (14)

Brighton & n/a n/a n/a 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 19 (19) - Hove

Fulham n/a n/a n/a 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 20 (-) -

*Brighton & Hove and Fulham did not have an official Weibo page in 2018 DISCLAIMER

Data has been sourced from public APIs and official homepages of the Premier League clubs. Rates of growth, engagement and acceleration have been calculated by Newton Insight. All data is aggregated. No personally identifiable data is presented in the report, nor is any personally identifiable data collected, analysed or stored as part of our research process. Newton Insight has made every attempt to ensure that the information contained in this report has been obtained from reliable sources and has been verified. The company, its employees and agents assume no responsibility for the accuracy of the contents of this report and disclaim any and all liabilities for errors or omissions. The information contained in this report is intended solely to provide general guidance on matters of interest for the personal use of the reader, who accepts full responsibility for its use. In no event shall Newton Insight, its employees and agents be liable for any special, direct, indirect, consequential, or incidental damages or any damages whatsoever, arising from or in connection with the use of the contents of the report. Newton Insight reserves the right to make additions, deletions, or modification to the contents of the report at any time without prior notice. The company has used names and titles (“Premier League” etc) independently and in good faith. No approval nor association with the Premier League nor the 20 constituent clubs is implied or inferred. No part of this report may be republished or redistributed without the written permission of Newton Insight. To discuss your research needs please contact us at [email protected]

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